Sirena Milano · Shadow Kiss
Sirena Milano · Shadow Kiss Backstage
Sirena Milano picked a corner of our villa for Shadow Kiss. On one of the hottest days we had to shoot, I might have chosen almost anywhere else.
We were looking for a place to work under the sun, and I was joking about that corner. Then Sirena suggested we shoot there.
I had to look at it again. Had I just made fun of our best option?
The heat was making the location decision feel more important than usual. I wanted somewhere that would give us a good start, and I was busy thinking like a photographer: where should we work, and how would I make the most of it? Sirena had a much simpler idea. What about here?
She was right.
I liked that she saw something in a spot I had been ready to dismiss. A corner of a villa doesn't sound like a grand plan for a photo set, does it? That was part of its appeal once I stopped arguing with the idea in my head. We didn't need to make the location sound impressive. We needed to see what Sirena could bring to it.
And she brought plenty.
The shoot felt fresh, and Sirena gave it a sexy, playful energy. I enjoyed photographing her there because the choice felt like hers. She had suggested the corner, and I could respond to that confidence through my camera instead of trying to steer us back toward whatever I had imagined earlier.
Meanwhile, I was the man who had been joking about our location. Very helpful, David. :)
That's one of the pleasures of working with a model who speaks up. I can spend all day thinking about photographs, but I don't have the only pair of eyes on a shoot. When Sirena offered her idea, she gave me a reason to pause and look again. I love that moment when my first opinion loses an argument and the pictures are better for it.
The hot day didn't disappear, of course. But it stopped being the only thing on my mind. I was concentrating on Sirena and on making the photographs we had found a way to shoot in that little corner. What had begun as a search for a location became a collaboration I really enjoyed.
Looking back at Shadow Kiss, that's the part that makes me smile. I remember the heat, my joke, and Sirena calmly turning the joke into the answer. She trusted her eye, I trusted her suggestion, and together we made a fresh, sexy set in the place I nearly overlooked.
Next time Sirena points to a corner, I think I'll listen before I start joking. :)
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